Microsoft has announced that they are going to drop the anti-piracy tool from Windows Vista, which could disable the operating system.

The so-called “kill switch” is designed to prevent users with illegal copies of Vista from using certain features.

Although Microsoft says that it has been effective in reducing piracy of the software, many users have claimed that their legitimate copies have also been disabled. Rather than ‘killing’ the pirated copies Microsoft is now going to trust the users are honest.

“Users whose systems are identified as counterfeit will be presented with clear and recurring notices about the status of their system and how to get genuine copies.”

“They won’t lose access to functionality or features, but it will be very clear to them that their copy of Window Vista is not genuine and they need to take action.”

As if they weren’t going to know that already!?

The changes will come into effect with the release of Service Pack 1 which will be a major update to Vista.